Steven Tyler v Nicki Minaj: Round One

Former American Idol judge Steven Tyler has offered his opinion on the current crop of judges and caused a bit of controversy at the same time.

The Aerosmith frontman gave his thoughts on the supposed Nicki Minaj/Mariah Carey beef, telling MTV: "They should have something going on, which is calledcamaraderie.”

He continued: "They should have something going on so thick and beautiful that they can lay it over the new talent that's trying to birth itself. It needs to be birthed, not judged by 'entertainment' factors, it needs to be judged by people that [are] honest, true, that have the 'it' factor. Not the 'it' factor because they can fight. The fuck is that all about?"

Tyler also differentiated between his Idol judging line-up of himself, Randy Jackson and Jennifer Lopez compared to the new group of Minaj, Carey, Jackson and Keith Urban.

"These kids, they just got out of a car from the Midwest somewhere and they're in New York City, they're scared to death; you're not going to get the best [out of them] ... If it was Bob Dylan, Nicki Minaj would have had him sent to the cornfield! Whereas, if it was Bob Dylan with us, we would have brought the best of him out, as we did with Phillip Phillips. Just saying."

Meanwhile, Minaj herself hit back on Twitter, unleashing her own scathing criticism of Tyler and his time on Idol.

“Steven Tyler said I would have sent Bob Dylan to a cornfield??? Steven, you haven't seen me judge one single solitary contestant yet!

“I understand you really wanted to keep your job but take that up with the producers. I haven't done anything to you. That's a racist comment